Toshiba will reportedly no longer bidding for bankrupt
Japanese chip maker Elpida Memory, leaving Micron
Technology SK Hynix and Micron Technology in the race to
take over the company.

Toshiba did not participate in the second round of
bidding set for Friday after talks stalled on a joint
bid with potential partners, a source told Reuters on
Tuesday.

Toshiba has pulled out of DRAM chip-making a decade ago
and has sold its U.S. DRAM facilities to Micron.

Industry sources have told Reuters that Toshiba, which
was interested in Elpida's engineering and marketing
expertise but reluctant to take on its assets,
approached SK Hynix about a joint bid after its solo bid
in the first round was too low.

Elpida filed for creditor protection in late February
with $5.6 billion in debt.

New facility in Thailand

In related news, Toshiba plans to rebuild its
semiconductor manufacturing operations in Thailand by
relocating Toshiba Semiconductor Thailand Co., Ltd.
(TST) to a new manufacturing facility. The move will
help the company to meet future growth in demand and
replace the factory inundated by the 2011 floods.

Established in 1990, TST carries out back-end
processes - assembly and packaging - for small signal
devices and photocouplers used on smart phones and
tablets PCs.

The new facility is at 15 to 20 meters above sea level
and outside Thailand's main drainage basins, with no
major rivers, so it offers TST advantages in the
viewpoint of business continuity planning (BCP).
Construction of a 2-story building will begin in July,
on a lot with an area of approximately 135,000 square
meters.

The plant is scheduled for completion next spring and
mass production is slated to start in the second quarter
(April-June) of 2013.

Toshiba Group is promoting a revitalization of its
discrete device business aimed at boosting efficiency
and profitability. Measures deployed to date include
transitioning to larger wafers and higher output in the
front-end process, and accelerating the overseas
transfer of the back-end process.